At least 12 people were killed Friday in Russia's nighttime strikes on Ukraine, while President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was "an evil act against our country and against our people that brings the terrorist state closer to failure and punishment."

"Russian terrorism must be adequately answered by Ukraine and the world," the Ukrainian president said Friday morning on Telegram. "Every attack and every evil act against our country and against our people brings the terrorist state closer to failure and punishment," he said.

On Friday morning, at least 10 people were killed in the central city of Uman, when a rocket hit a residential building, according to the latest toll from the interior minister.

"Rescuers pulled three more bodies from under the rubble," Minister Igor Klimenko wrote on Facebook, bringing the total to "10 victims at 10:05 am (0705 GMT)".

At least nine people were taken to hospital, the district governor, Igor Taborets, wrote on Facebook.

A second strike on the city of Dnipro, in central eastern Ukraine, killed two people, "a young woman and a three-year-old child," according to the mayor, Boris Filatov.

And the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense stated in a statement that “Ukrainian air defenses shot down 21 of the 23 missiles and two drones,” saying that Russia, the “terrorist state,” fired the ammunition from the Tu-95 strategic bombers.

And the Kiev municipality stated that the air defenses in the capital were able to shoot down 11 Russian cruise missiles on the night of Thursday to Friday, in addition to two drones, without causing casualties or noticeable damage.

In the city of Uman, with a population of about 80,000 in the center of the country, located 200 km south of Kiev, journalists from Agence France-Presse saw a heavily damaged apartment building with rubble on the ground, while rescuers were pulling two bodies from under the rubble.

Taborets indicated that two cruise missiles landed in Uman, one of which hit a residential building and the other a warehouse.

In Kiev, a power line was cut after falling debris also damaged the road, according to authorities.

For his part, Air Defense Forces Commander Sergey Popko said, "There were no reports of civilian casualties or damage to residential buildings or infrastructure" in the capital.

In the city of Ukrainka, near Kiev, shrapnel from a missile landed on a building, injuring a young girl who was taken to hospital, according to the region's governor, Ruslan Kravchenko.

Russia regularly bombed Ukrainian cities and energy facilities during the winter, but such heavy strikes have been rare in recent months.

This is the first massive missile attack on the Ukrainian capital since early March.

The Russian strikes, which were carried out during the winter, targeted energy facilities in particular, causing regular outages of electricity and running water. Dozens of missiles were used in these attacks.

But this Russian tactic did not capitulate Kiev.

Ukraine's air defense system has been beefed up in recent months after the country delivered Western equipment vital to the war effort. Among that military equipment, Kiev received the advanced US Patriot missile system in April.

Last week, the Ukrainian capital was the target of an attack by 12 Iranian-made drones, eight of which were shot down without causing casualties.

The bulk of the battles are currently taking place in the east of the country to control the industrial Donbass region, especially the city of Bakhmut, which has become almost destroyed.

Ukraine says it has been preparing for months for a counter-attack aimed at expelling Russian forces from the territories it currently occupies in the east and south of the country.

On the other hand, the Council of Europe considered, in a resolution adopted by its Parliamentary Assembly, that Russia's forcible transfer of Ukrainian children amounted to "genocide."

The council called for the safe return of the children to Ukraine, stressing that "documented evidence of these practices meet the international definition of the crime of genocide."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the decision, saying it was "important" and would help "hold Russia and its leaders accountable".
In his evening address, he said that the deportation of Ukrainian children was one of the elements of "Russia's attempt to erase the identity of our people and eradicate the soul of the Ukrainian people."